Friday, October 30, 2009

“Footprints in the Digital Age,” by Will Richardson tells about how students find things out on their own instead of being taught them, this is important because learning this way doesn’t allow any room for error. Students hear about social networking sites by their friends and automatically join, instead of doing some research on their own. This similar to drinking an unknown liquid that a friend gave them without trying to figure out what the liquid is or if it is dangerous. A lot of the time the new idea or in this case a website will be passed around very quickly without any tests done by any users. The point is that there is nothing wrong with joining a new networking site, but it is wrong to join because your friends are doing it without any research.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

“Pilot fired after alcohol test seeks reinstatement” by The Associated Press tells of a Frontier Airlines pilot who was fired after alcohol tests came back positive, this is important because just like drunk drivers, drunk pilots are not very skilled. Aviation is a big fear for many people, although driving in a car is more dangerous than flying in a jet, the idea of leaving the ground and being a mile above the ground scares many people. The reason flying is safer than driving is because pilots are very skilled and get a lot of practice at their profession, but that practice counts for nothing when a pilot is under the influence of alcohol. Landing a plane is a very difficult maneuver and is almost always done by a skilled professional. When it comes to aviation people pay very much for a scary experience, so there is no room for error or a drunken pilot.

Fort Collins parents face felony charges in 'balloon boy" case by Kirk Mitchell explains how the parents of the “balloon boy,” are being charged with felony for providing false information to authorities. The parents have in the past acted on reality TV shows and from their past sounds like they are craving for publicity. It is a crime punishable by law to lie to an authority and provide false information. In this case the fine will be very large. When a real emergency is present authorities are required to help and it is free to the victim. When a false report is given to the do authorities they charge for the help they give. The Heene family will most likely have a lot to pay back to the emergency services for the help they provided, this will probably be very expensive considering a United States Air National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was scrambled to help pursuit the “runaway balloon”.

In Karl Fisch’s video “2020 Vision,” he acts as if he is a speaker at a high school graduation in the year 2020, this is important because it predicts the future of learning. The video summarizes how education has changed from the year 2007 to 2020. In the 13 years much has changed, Google is as powerful as a country and education has changed entirely. Instead of going class to class students bring their own laptop and go through courses on their specific interests. Some of the students even stay at home and learn without ever leaving their room. According to the video the learning experience is in depth on the specific subject the pupil is interested in.

Monday, October 12, 2009

“Educational Leadership” “Tony Wagner” talks about how it is more important for teachers to teach the material so students understand it, instead of teaching it so they can pass a test. I can really connect to this article. Last year in Spanish 1 I did not understand most of the material. Instead of aiming to understand the language I aimed to get a passing grade in the class so I could move into Spanish 2 in high school. I did get the passing grade and my teacher agreed that if I passed her class I could move into Spanish 2 in high school. When the year started I quickly realized that it wasn’t enough to pass the class but it was necessary to understand the language to move up in the class. This relates to “Educational Leadership” because it is proof that teachers are teaching so their students get good grades instead of understanding the material.